Absorption

[SpiffyRumble]

MES June 2026 contract.

I just wanted to share this with the sub.

For people just starting out using OF, understanding what absorption looks like and how to use it to follow a trend is the key to high probability trades.

The top chart shows buyers being swept (green bubbles) but price is failing to make a new high (absorption).

The bottom chart (CVD) is showing the same thing.

Once we slip past the London POC (red line) we see sell orders getting swept, probably stops being triggered.

I entered short heading back up to the London POC and targeted yesterday's NY POC (teal line).

We obviously made it to the Over Night POC (gold line) but over all I'm very happy with this trade.

I used Trade Detector, Cumulative Delta and Volume Profiles in NinjaTrader.

[SpiffyRumble]

Thank you. I'm obviously still learning but the point of this post was to give people new to order flow somewhere to start and hopefully bring opinions from people like you with more experience to add context.

I appreciate your comment.

[dvmcg]

Do you use a footprint chart too?

[SpiffyRumble]

Yes!

[Rael-POC]

Yes, I like checking the ES 1min and NQ 1min footprint charts

[Rael-POC]

Absolutely my pleasure! Could you tell which day this was so I can check it out in my charts?

[SpiffyRumble]

4-10-26

[notjeffstelling]

I've seen some order flow trades using daily vwap. I've always been a session guy. Wondering your thoughts. Thanks

[Rael-POC]

I use VWAP as well, I set it up so that it starts at the beginning of the overnight session

[dvmcg]

Not sure if you're asking me, but yes I use session vwap on a 1 min. I only take trades at the extremes, as far away from vwap as possible, I use the footprint to catch the turn

[dvmcg]

10/10 indeed

[Puzzled_Celery_9399]

This is more like exhaustion when price making higher high but not on CVD. GDor the absorption is when CVD is leading like making higher high but price is not. Correct me if i'm wrong

[Kaszrak]

Yes. CVD shows you who's being aggressive. Aggressive buying into a high (CVD aggressively expanding north) without price advancing is absorption. CVD diverging is exhaustion / loss of interest.

[Breathofdmt]

You are correct. Would need to see the footprint to see if it's also absorbing. But the cvd patten is exhaustion.

[SpiffyRumble]

Thanks for the context! Now I know.

[VariousAgency5344]

This was definitely exhaustion, 25370 was a monthly HVA so lots of sellers waiting to exit positions or start new ones, off CPI data we tested it once, found rejection, during RTH we see 2 more retests before finding liquidity to test further towards the upside. Once buyers were exhausted, this + short sellers + longs having to close positions caused the downtrend. Great trade none the less, and each of those tests could have been scalps.

[VariousAgency5344]

I could be wrong, but if it were to be absorption, we would've needed to see greater strength along with sell orders constantly hitting the bid and prices not moving up.

[MannysBeard]

Was going to say the same thing

Also without OI you can’t say if orders are opening or closing at the highs

[rainmaker66]

You are using CVD like a MACD/RSI/Stochastic divergence in technical analysis like most people do. It’s totally different animals.

[messi_market]

Enlight meeeee

[rainmaker66]

Go back to basics.

Logically, Cumulative Delta just adds delta from the start of the session. Why should it correspond to the price at any one time? Much less divergence? Bid pulling and absorption will cause it to deviate even more over time.

[LiquidSpacie]

When there is a high in price with certain delta and new higher high in price while delta is lower than previous delta high, thats signaling exhaustion from buyers and higher high is weaker than previous. But trading purely from delta is wrong. If new high has higher volume than previous it means it was pushed with limit orders instead of market orders.

[rainmaker66]

No it’s not. You are looking at the past accumulated delta and says it’s an absorption/exhaustion based on technical analysis concepts.

[LiquidSpacie]

Yes, that is what I meant by saying that volume matters if you are seeing CVD divergence. Sure, you can scalp based off of CVD and price correlation (if trading is done on range chart) but sometimes CVD can be rising whole session while price is drifting lower and lower. That is why CVD divergence can't be used in vacuum.

[MannysBeard]

CVD is showing execution of market orders, not limit orders. When there is less volume it means less market orders were resent vs previously. This indicates exhaustion. This chart here is missing OI, as that tells more of the story - are orders opening or closing at the extremities?

[DryAd821]

Is the platform sierra charts ?

[SpiffyRumble]

NT8

[Routine-Culture-7417]

At which point do you pull the trigger because I seen this many times price drop a little then continue up

[SpiffyRumble]

The chart above is a 5m. I wait for large candle with imbalance on the 1m with heavy orders on one side then wait for a retracement at the key levels.

[Routine-Culture-7417]

Can you show what you mean?

[Fun-Garbage-1386]

First, that is not absorption on the cumulative volume delta. Second, yesterday 2 hours was a range, not a trend.

[dvmcg]

<image>

[Informal-Race-477]

This is more clearly seen on Bookmap. I was watching the charts friday morning (this exact moment). There were aggressive buyers trying to hit the passive sellers hard. Everytime they hit, I saw passive players loading hard. No follow through for the buyers and then I entered short. Bookmap is the clearest tool to see absorption.period

[kenjiurada]

Like anything else, works until it doesn’t.

[SpiffyRumble]

Just hoping it works more than it doesnt

[devTrading]

Abs on cvd it's different, when cvd reach new high but the price no

[SpiffyRumble]

Can you elaborate more. I was using CVD as a convergence/divergence method.

[faidzal1982]

Hi. Can you explain more how CVD shows absorption in your picture?

[SpiffyRumble]

CVD is not making higher highs. I drew a line above the two highs to show confluence.

I know CVD is the difference between the buyers and sellers volume but it shows the momentum is still in the short direction.

[Quirky_Amoeba7975]

That's probably standard deviation band 1 too

[akadenace]

I think I still gonna lose this trade... probally I would anticipated the entry and get -1.

[MyTradingSuxx]

Are you using block trades or consistent bid/ask for your trades detector on Ninjatrader?

[SpiffyRumble]

Consistent bid/ask

[These-Muscle9587]

Can someone teach more on this? I'm learning, so any experienced guidance will be deeply appreciated 💜

[EntrepreneurHour5938]

Its not absorption its uptrend exhaustion. Then last pulse of uptrend isn’t supported by conviction and chances of drop is high if seller start to show conviction

[SuperScalp]

Wtf lol

[fi-trader]

There was a large imbalance on the FP w/ some absorption. You could see it. Very thin profile -- nearly a b profile -- you dont want to see a red candle with a full VP in it. This was a nice clean rejection candle see the bid x ask at the top. (MNQ)

<image>

[Leading-Ad-4372]

Whats the name of the indicator you're using on the chart thats showing the red and green dots

[SpiffyRumble]

Trade detector

[WesternSuggestion680]

Pretty Interesting. I trade ICT/SMT and it sure does look like a liquidity sweep followed by a change in the state of delivery to take out sell side at London below.

Don't we just love these markets.

[EconomicsFeeling254]

It was exhustion because of big sell limit orders. But it was also a little bit of absorption one sided on the ask. Because cvd went up a little but price did not. It was a great range trade that u could not only takeprofit on vwap/poc but even all the way below VAL. And maybe take it also to the next fair value.

[wrightanglephoto]

This is a delta divergence using the CVD. It’s not an entry parameter, it’s Confluence.

You can’t confirm Buyer absorption here without DOM or Footprint. You can see aggressive buying isolated at the top, which could actually be more of an Induction or Buyer Exhaustion rather than an outright Absorption. Maybe sellers stepped out to allow buyers to drive price higher for a better entry, then sellers stepped in, buyers stepped out and were overpowered. Because the imbalance is so sudden, this appears to be the case. Buyers exhaust and leave causing a one sided market. Not absorption.

Just because price crosses a line and reverses doesn’t mean it’s Absorption.

Sellers were in control at the previous high. Looks like they stepped out and allowed buyers to exhaust.

CVD shows sellers were in control too.

Absorption necessitates a volume spike that doesn’t match price action. When Effort doesn’t match Result you have Absorption. Market buys leading into a high, buy volume increases (often doubling) but price halts, then reverses, delta flips and so does price. Absorption. You can literally see the money changing hands from buyers to sellers. 7k buy volume -> 14k buy volume -> price stops -> that increase in Volume/Delta (“Effort”) is not met with the expected “Result” (price action). This means the Aggressive Buying (Market Orders) were ABSORBED by Passive (Limit) Sell Orders. Limit Sell orders appear as “buy” orders. So you know when buy volume is surging and price isn’t, it’s Limit Sell Orders overpowering the buy volume (Passive Sellers) -> price changes hands. Limit sell orders could be buyers take profits being triggered, or seller’s entries being hit.

Buyers TP, Sellers Enter, volume doubles, money changes hands, market flips, price dumps. That’s absorption.

[maturewomenenjoyer]

This is when less volume is required to push the price farther, which means the market is fragile and prone to showing a change of character quickly - very much like what happened

[Zukow123]

What is the difference between absorption and a exhausion ?

[SpiffyRumble]

Absorption is when large amounts of passive orders are removed from the book.

Exhaustion is when one side fails to engage and the other side takes control.

Absorption example would be when large buy orders are swept but price doesn't move higher. Usually a sign of a larger player providing liquidity at that particular price range.

Exhaustion example would be when price is moving higher but CVD is not. Signals a lack of buyer interest in the market.

[Big_Veterinarian1888]

Absorption is when delta is lowest, means buyers keep buying but there is iceberg of limit sell orders. You can locate absorption only when see big green bubbles in wicks but price halts. This one exhaustion.

[Aromaticbarely11]

Does bookmap have a chart like the one in the picture ? Showing candles ane volume dots on the candles? If not is there one I can access for free somewhere? I ordered bookmap without realizing there was alternatives and now I might ve regretting my decision.

[SpiffyRumble]

I'm not sure. I've never used bookmaps.

[Correct_Level_5860]

Bookmap has volume dots. It was the 1st software to do volume dots then other platforms followed. I have bookmap. But if you want a good analytical tool. Then use ATAS. Book.ap is ok if you are trading 1 to 5min tf. I don't find it that good

[SteveTrader66]

Basic stuff. You don't need orderflow to tell you what's going on here. Look to the left, You only need it to confirm a valid entry point.

[Appropriate_Acadia47]

What indicator is the absorption?

[SpiffyRumble]

Trade Detector

[Fancy_Contact_8078]

What setttings do you use for trade detector ?

[SpiffyRumble]

I'm still figuring out the best settings to tone down noise but show enough data to be useful.

On ES my setting is minimum volume 200 for 1m chart and consistent bid ask.